AMD760 + 4DDR ... Where?!

[Guest]

I don't get it. The MSI MS-6341 on Tom's Power Box ( http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/01q1/010219/powerbox-03.html ) has 4 ram slots. So I bought one. It came with only two slots! Every manufacturer website I go to for an AMD760 chipset has pics of motherboards with only 2 ram slots, including MSI. Where'd he get the 4-slotter? Where can I find one? I hate being able to use only half the ram I bought! Help?

 

[agpport]

MAybe you got an OEM-board, maybe tom had a pre-release board...

picture at http://www.msi.com.tw/products/mainboard/mainboard.php?model=MS-6341 shows only 2 RAM-slots. The picture at your link shows 2. Mysterious...

You should e-mail tom@tomshardware.com. I also noticed that the board Tom used was MSI K7 Master S, not just K7 Master but K7 Master S.

_________________________________________
.your signature is wasting perfectly good bandwidth.

 

[agpport]

The Abit KG7 has 4 RAM slots...

_________________________________________
.your signature is wasting perfectly good bandwidth.

 

[Guest]

KG7.. Not bad! Pity it's not out yet, and is so expensive. <sigh> Plus I've had problems with my current Abit board (damn UDMA ports kept locking me up), so I'm kinda scared of the company, though I know I shouldn't be.

You're right about the pre-release board. Tom's got a v0.D and mine's a v1.1. Why'd MSI decided to take out two ram slots, I wonder? All the reviewers seemed to love the 4-slot idea.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. Are there any other 4-slotters out there?

 

[Crashman]

The answer is NOT. The AMD 761 Northbridge supports only 2 UNregistered DIMMs or 4 REGISTERED DIMMS. Because most companies want their motherboards to be compatable with the MOST STANDARD, INEXPENSIVE type of DDR available, they cut back to 2 slots for use with UNregestered DIMMS.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[bungee]

I agree, and anyway, don't forget that with Win 9x, only 512 MB can be used which can be easily filled with one or two barrets. Just a note because there are other OS...

<font color=red>Hail total victory of AMD versus Intel!

 

[Guest]

...Why can't I ever find this stuff out /before/ I spend lots of money?! <whine>

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll stick with the MSI until something better comes along.

 

[Crashman]

Just use the biggest sticks you can find. Steve Benoit of Stable Technologies explained the reasons for two slots in much more detail. Concerning unregistered DDR DIMMS "the specifications for unbuffered RAM are 3 clock cycles per DIMM. This being the case, having 4-DIMM slots would require the AMD761 chipset to support 12 clock Cycles.... As this is like, well impossible." He went on to say "Registered DIMMs only use 1 clock cycle, therefore, using 4-Registered DIMMs would only require 4 clock cycles, which is what both motherboards were actually designed for in the first place."
So the use of unregistered DDR DIMMS precludes the use of 4 banks. They originally intended to release boards that would support unregistered in only two banks or registered in all 4 banks, but I think they opted for a wise choice in simply cuting back to two sockets, as most poeple would not understand what was going on and instead assume a defect which is not really present.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

nice well said... explained a lot ... thanks for your post!

Now if someone can just recommend a nice DDR board with out all the internal garbage. the epox DDR board looks nice *shrugs*

My sig is better then your's!

 

[ahallada]

You can get 256MB of Micron PC2100 DDR ram C=2.5 for 34.00 now and who needs more than 512MB now anyway?
As far as these AMD761 chipset motherboards, I think they all should come with Promise Ultra100 TX2 controllers built in because that VIA Southbridge just plain sucks when running multiple hard drives. I got 30-40% boost in performance from the Promise card by hooking both hard drives to separate channels on the Promise card and having both as Masters. I used the Promise drivers and it came with the correct hard drive drivers unlike those generic ones on WinME. Best 36.00 I've spent all year. LOL
Allen

 

[Crashman]

The A7A266 is available without audio if you look for it. The A7M266 is as well. In fact most are if you look hard enough.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[amebapk]

well, what is the difference between registered ram and unregistered ram???

 

[Crashman]

I believe registered is the same as ECC, which would be slower but more accurate and more expensive.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[phsstpok]

From <A HREF="http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/tsdramfaq.html" target="_new">Corsair's SDRAM FAQ</A>

"What is ECC?
Typical memory controllers read and write 64 bits of data at a time to and from memory modules that do not support ECC. 8 additional bits are required to support ECC (72 bit memory modules). Systems using ECC (Error Detection and Correction) can automatically correct any single bit error in any of the 72 bits. They can detect two bit errors. ECC is used in mission critical applications so that the system will not crash if a memory cell loses data.

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What are registered modules?
There are two types of SDRAM module organizations, unbuffered (also known as unregistered) and registered. Registered modules have additional components (registers) placed between the incoming address and control information and the SDRAM components. These modules are typically used in Servers due to their added reliability <b>(they place much less of an electrical load on the memory controller and therefore make it possible to have as many as 16 or 32 modules in a large system)</b>."

 

[Crashman]

Thanks, I had never cared enough to look it up!

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[phsstpok]

Neither did I until I noticed some messages indicating that some motherboards can only reach their maximum memory with registered DRAMS. I was a little miffed that I did not know this before purchasing RAM but then I realized my meager demands require only 256mb.

 

[jlanka]

And all this time I thought registered meant that you had to go to Intel's web site and enter the serial numbers of your DIMMS so that you could "register" your RAM with big brother, sort of like the serial number on the PIII. hehehe

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[phsstpok]

We <b>ARE</b> watching you!

 

[pvsurfer]

Also re. Registered vs. Unbuffered modules, I would add two very important considerations:

1. Registered DRAMs are SLOWER than Unbuffered DRAMs because Registered modules incur a one clock-cycle data-transfer delay <A HREF="http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=010710-0015&130=000994794015&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=search&58=&2900=&25=6&3=registered" target="_new"> according to Crucial</A>

2. You can NOT mix these two types of memory!

 

[phsstpok]

Hey, thanks for the info. I didn't know that. In fact, I thought it was the other way around. Guess the tradeoff is speed or capacity.

 

[pvsurfer]

Exactly. So it seems to me that you should take your best shot estimating the most memory you are likely to need, and stuff it into 2-unbuffered slots!

 

[phsstpok]

Not a problem for me being a Windows 98SE user who doesn't often need more than 256mb. I can see where Win2K users might run into problems with only 2 slots. Many boards only accept 512mb per slot max. Some don't even allow that much.